Local SEO Checklist for Kansas City Businesses

September 10, 2019

Search Engine Optimization

If you have a local business in Kansas City, you need to have a solid SEO strategy. This allows your business to show up and rank higher in search results when people are looking for your business (particularly with Google, since that’s what over 90% of people use). There are several key aspects of Kansas City local SEO that you need to implement in order to increase visibility, ranking, and traffic to your site via Google.

To achieve that, use this local SEO checklist for Kansas City businesses:

Set Up a Google My Business Page

Whether you’re looking to improve your local SEO in Kansas City or anywhere else in the country, you’re going to need a Google My Business page. This is a list of operating information about your business, reviews, posts, and more.

While this information should already be on your website (more on that in a minute), having it in Google My Business allows your information to show consistently in Google Search and Google Maps as well.

Think for a moment about how you search for other local services in Kansas City. If you’re hungry, you might google “italian restaurant overland park”, select one of the results, and see information about the business such as its address, phone number, website, and the types of services offered:

That’s all thanks to GMB (Google My Business). And it’s completely free to set up. In addition to making it easier for customers to find you, it can also boost your SEO ranking via the keywords you use in your business name and other sections. When it comes to Kansas City local SEO, you can’t afford not to use this.

Request and Earn Google Reviews

If online success were as easy as setting up a GMB account and forgetting about it, anyone could become the best local seo company in Kansas City easily. But reviews are taken into account in Google’s algorithm as well, making them crucial for great local SEO. And most customers won’t take the initiative to give you a review.

It’s your responsibility to actively request reviews on your GMB account from happy customers. Luckily, the process is pretty easy once you’ve accurately entered your business info into GMB. Simply ask your customers to Google you, click on your business, and go to the review section to share their experience.

This is important not only for Google’s SEO algorithm but also for the human side of the equation: getting people unfamiliar with your business to consider you over the competition.

Build Local Citations and Local Directory Listings

In essence, a local citation is any mention of your business name, address, and phone number online. This can occur on a website, app, or other platform. In fact, Google My Business is really a local citation on steroids.

Platforms acting as local business directories are great sources for citations, such like Acxiom, Localeze, Yelp, and even Facebook. Each time your business information is listed accurately, it helps your SEO. Anytime there are inconsistencies, it hurts it. So ensure any updates in your information are changed on any platforms you submit to.

Create Local SEO Content for Kansas City

Creating content for your website that is relevant to your market is always key. It helps your customers relate and it provides a source for keywords that they might be searching for.

As an example, a hotel downtown might mention the benefits of being located near Union Station or other attractions. Conversely, a hotel like the Sheraton off of 435 might talk up the benefits of nearby Leawood Town Center and the great lunch options for business travelers.

This increases the value to your visitors, which encourages them to spend longer on your page and engage with it more, both of which help local SEO.

Set up a Google Search Console Account

Google Search Console is a powerful and free service that allows you to keep track of your SEO metrics. You can see which keywords you need to improve, changes in your rankings, and whether or not Google is able to successfully “crawl” your site with its bots. It gives you alerts when something goes wrong, so that you can make corrections to the technical side of your website and ensure that you continue to maximize organic traffic to your local business.

While essential to local SEO, it’s not for beginners. You may want to outsource this to someone who does it day in, day out.

List Your NAP on Your Website

Earlier, we covered local citations and their importance for your local SEO. Having your name, address, and phone number (NAP) match exactly across all online platforms is crucial. So your website should include this information, which Google takes strongly into account when ranking different local businesses against each other. Incorrect information confuses users, and that’s something Google wants to avoid.

Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

More people use mobile devices to search for local businesses than computers these days. Therefore, SEO reflects this reality. Your site needs to display seamlessly on smartphones and be easy to use. If you’re not a web design geek, it’s best to hire a professional who is. Better yet, go with a proven company with a track record of results with Kansas City local SEO.

Optimize Your Website’s Page Speed

Page speed refers to how fast a page on your website loads. If you’ve ever waited for ages for a site to load, you know how frustrating that is. You might have even clicked away out of frustration. Google understands this. That’s why it’s one of the big factors in local SEO. The better the experience you provide for people on your site via speed and ease of use, the better organic search results that Google is going to reward you with.

You can optimize your page speed in a number of ways. For instance, compress your images to a smaller size so that they load quicker. This can be done through a number of services online, such as tinypng.com and more. But at the end of the day, most methods for improving page speed involve a deep understanding of the code structure and technical aspect of HTML, CSS, Javascript, and other web technologies that are used in rendering a website. Let your trusted web designer handle that for you.

Now you understand the key concepts of local SEO and what needs to happen if you want your Kansas City business to thrive. If this checklist seems tedious, time-consuming, or more comprehensive than you expected…that’s because it is. You’re free to dive into all of it yourself, or you can hire an SEO expert to do it for you. That way you can focus on running your business instead of burying your head in endless data.